The First Book of Nephi

HIS RULE AND MINISTRY

An account of Lehi, his wife Sariah, and his four sons, named beginning with the oldest Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi. The Lord warns Lehi to leave the land of Jerusalem because he prophesies to the people about their iniquity and they attempt to kill him. He journeys for three days into the wilderness with his family. Nephi takes his brothers and...

Now I’m not providing my ancestors’ genealogy in this part of my record, and I’m not going to do so on these plates that I’m engraving since it’s provided in my father’s record; so it’s not included here. I’m content to say that we’re descended from Joseph. Moreover, I don’t care to provide a detailed account of all the events involving my father, since they won’t fit on these plates, because I...

On these plates I’ll provide an account of my life, rule, and ministry. So, continuing on, I need to say something about my father’s and my brothers’ concerns.

After my father had finished recounting his dream and urging them to diligence, he spoke to them about the Jews, that once they’re destroyed, along with that great city of Jerusalem, and after many have been carried away as prisoners into...

After I had been carried away in the Spirit and seen all these things, I returned to my father’s tent. I saw my brothers, and they were arguing with each other about what my father told them. He had told them many great things that were hard to understand unless a person asked the Lord. Because they were hard-hearted, they didn’t look to the Lord as they should have. I was troubled because of...

When I had finished speaking with my brothers they told me: You’ve declared harsh things to us, more than we can stand. I replied that I knew I had spoken blunt things against the wicked because it’s the truth. But I’ve justified the righteous, testifying they would be lifted up on the last day. Therefore the truth wounds the guilty since it cuts them to the core. Now, my brothers, if you were...

So, I taught my brothers these things. I also read to them from the brass plates, so they could learn what the Lord had done in other lands among former people. I read to them many things from the books of Moses. But in order to more completely persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer, I read to them what the prophet Isaiah had written. I applied all scriptures to us, to educate and...

After I had read these things written on the brass plates, my brothers came to me and asked: What do the things you’ve read mean? Are they to be understood according to spiritual things, or what will happen to the spirit and not the body? I told them: They were revealed to the prophet by the voice of the Spirit, because the Spirit has revealed everything that will happen to mortal people to the...